A letter from Russian infantrymen gives an insight into the mood at the front: According to reports, the soldiers complain about their commanders, who are primarily concerned with their glory. In the event of a failed offensive, the brigade in eastern Ukraine would suffer heavy casualties.
According to reports in the Russian exile medium “Meduza” and the “Novaya Gazeta”, Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine complain about mistakes in warfare and high losses. This emerges from a letter from members of the 155th Marine Infantry Brigade of the Pacific Fleet to the governor of their home region of Primorye, Oleg Kozhemyako. Several sources close to the Kremlin, including the state radio’s “war correspondent” Alexander Zladkov, also report on the complaint.
The soldiers write, according to translations, that over the course of four days they “lost about 300 men – dead, wounded and missing” during an “inexplicable offensive” in the village of Pavlivka near Wuhledar in the Donetsk region. They would also have lost half of the vehicles. They emphasized that these were only their own brigade’s casualties. Their commanders tried to “disguise” the immense losses. The reason for the losses is that the soldiers were supposed to attack higher Ukrainian defenses. “The blood flows and flows,” the letter said.
According to the authors of the letter, their commanders – “General Muradov and his compatriot and buddy Akhmedov” – planned the offensive in such a way that the first would “deserve a premium before the heads of the General Staff”, and the second would receive the title “Hero of Russia”. “They don’t care about anything except adorning themselves. They call people flesh,” the letter reads. Rustam Muradov is the commander of the eastern military district and thus the supreme commander of the unit in question.
The Marines are asking Kozhemyako to send an “independent” commission unaffiliated with the Defense Ministry, they said. This should ask “the purpose of such actions”. The Primorsky Krai, where Kozhemyako rules, is home to the 155th Marine Infantry Brigade.
In fact, on November 5 and 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported “defeats against units of the Ukrainian armed forces” near Pavlivka.
